Rotating arm assist for ring-type ball elevators

ABSTRACT

THIS INVENTION RELATES TO CONVENTIONAL, RINGTYPE BALL ELEVATORS, USED IN BOWLING ALLEYS. THE ELEVATOR HAS A RING DEFINING A CYLINDRICAL SURFACE MOVABLE CONTINUALLY THROUGH A CIRCULAR PATH EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF AN ALLEY PIT. THE LOWER EXTREMITY OF THE PATH CONSTITUTES A BALL-PICKUP STATION. A STATIONARY, ARCUATE TRACK IS RADIALLY DISPLACED A DISTANCE FROM THE PERIPHERY OF THE CYLINDER SURFACE FOR GUIDING AND ELEVATING THE BALL. THE IMPROVEMENT OF THIS INVENTION PROVIDES A ROTATING, BALL-ENGAGING ARM WITHIN THE CYLINDRICAL VOLUME DEFINED BY THE CYLINDRICAL SURFACE. THE ARM POSITIONED AT A SUITABLE DISTANCE FROM THE CYLINDRICAL SURFACE, NEAR THE BALLPICKUP STATION, ENGAGES AND ASSISTS THE BALL TO ENTER THE SPACE BETWEEN THE TRACK AND THE CYLINDRICAL SURFACE.

Feb. 2, 1971 3,560,129

ROTATING ARM ASSIST FOR RING-TYPE BALL ELEVATORS DIAZ Filed Oct. 14, 1968 INVIL'N'I'UR A r TOPNEY United States Patent O 3,560,129 ROTATING ARM ASSIST FOR RING-TYPE BALL ELEVATORS Joe Diaz, Houston, Tex., assignor to Michael P. Breston, Houston, Tex. Filed Oct. 14, 1968, Ser. No. 767,203 Int. Cl. A63d 5/02 US. Cl. 273-49 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE I This invention relates to conventional, automatic, ringtype ball elevators, used in bowling alleys. The elevator has a ring defining a cylindrical surface movable continually through a circular path extending transversely of an alley pit. The lower extremity of the path constitutes a ball-pickup station. A stationary, arcuate track is radially displaced a distance from the periphery of the cylindrical surface for guiding and elevating the ball. The improvement of this invention provides a rotating, ball-engaging arm within the cylindrical volume defined by the cylindrical surface. The arm positioned at a suitable distance from the cylindrical surface, near the hallpickup station, engages and assists the ball to enter the space between the track and the cylindrical surface.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Ring-type ball elevators, such as described in US. Pat. 2,892,632, issued on June 30, 1959, to George A. Montooth, are now widely used in bowling houses throughout the world. As described in this patent, such elevators are mounted at the rear of an alley pit having sidewalls and a pit floor formed of a plurality of moving belts. A rotating ring, defining an inner, smooth, cylindrical surface, is disposed transversally of the pit. The cylindrical surface continually rotates through a circular path. An arcuate track is pivotally-mounted within the ring, and is displaced from the cylindrical surface a radial distance slightly less than the diameter of the bowling ball.

The track cooperates with the rotating, cylindrical surface to allow the ball to ride up the track from the bottom, ball-pickup station to an elevated, ball-discharge station from which the ball returns to the player via a discharge track. While ring-type, ball elevators have been perfected through the years for faster-and-faster, automatic ball return, a serious ball-spinning problem continued to plague bowling alley operators much to the annoyance of the bowlers.

Theoretically, when the cylindrical surface and the ball are free from foreign materials, such as oil, dust, etc., there is sufficient friction between the ball and the cylindrical surface to cause the ball to be lifted by the elevator. In practice, however, both the ball and the cylindrical surface periodically become covered with a thin film of such foreign materials. A thin film of oil, for example, can cause the ball to loose its frictional engagement with the cylindrical surface. When this happens the ball starts spinning on the lowermost position of the circular path and remains spinning at the ball-pickup station.

Bowling alley operators found it necessary to continuously station one or more attendants near the ball elevators for the purpose of manually lifting spinning balls and guiding them unto the arcuate track.

Accordingly it is a main object of this invention to solve the spinning-ball problem in ball elevators of the foregoing type.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a conice tinuously rotating ball-engaging means inside the ring for automatically engaging and assisting the ball to ride up the arcuate track.

It is another object of this invention to save bowling alley operators the expense of maintaining attendants near the ball elevators for the purpose of assisting the elevators to return the balls to the players.

"It is yet another object of this invention to provide an improvement to ball elevators of the foregoing type which is inexpensive to manufacture, which is dependable in operation, and which requires a minimum of parts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of the improvement of this invention includes rotating, ball-engaging means positioned inside the cylindrical volume defined by the cylindrical surface. The rotating means are positioned near the ball-pickup station and are adapted to push the ball from its lowermost position on the circular path up to the arcuate track.

A specific embodiment of this invention includes a rotating arm periodically sweeping through the lowermost portion of the circular path traversed by the ring. The rotating arm engages the ball after the ball enters the bottom pickup station. The arm maintains that engagement during a portion of its trajectory. Immediately thereafter the ball becomes engaged by the arcuate track for positive elevation.

The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its construction and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof will be better understood from the following description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which a presently preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for purposes of illustration only, and are not intended to define the limits of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a side view in elevation, partly in perspective, of a portion of the improved ring-type elevator, including the ball positioned at the ball-pickup station;

FIG. 2 shows a view in perspective of the rotating arm and supports therefor in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention; and

FIG. 3 is a view in cross section taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT For a complete description including drawings of ringtype ball elevators, reference may be had to US. Pat. 2,892,632, previously mentioned. The description of such elevators will be given herein only to the extent necessary for a complete understanding of the improvement to such elevators provided by this invention.

Referring to the drawings, the same numerals are used to designate identical parts. To the extent possible, for ease of understanding, similar parts will be designated with numerals identical to those in said patent followed by the letter A.

The ball elevator, generally designated as 10, includes an annular or ring member 25A supported for rotation on a plurality of guide rollers such as 32A and 33A. The inner wall of ring 25A defines a smooth, cylindrical surface 12 which rotates continually in a plane transverse to the alley pit in the direction shown by arrow 14. The

alley pit is in the back of the plane of the drawing. Cy-

lindrical surface 12 moves through a circular path 16 having a lowermost position 18 serving as a ball-pickup station 20, adjacently disposed to the horizontal moving belts (not shown) in the pit.

An arcuate track, generally designated as 24, consists of a pair of cooperating, spaced-apart, arcuately-shaped track members 26A and 27A covered with flexible sleeves 28, 29, respectively. Track 24 is vertically disposed and spaced apart from the cylindrical surface 12 a distance slightly less than the diameter of a bowling ball 22. Track member 27A is disposed forwardly and track member 26A is disposed rearwardly of cylindrical surface 12.

A ball-trap mechanism 30 is provided to insure that ball 22 is properly engaged by track 24. Mechanism 30 is pivotally mounted on pivot 31 secured to a bracketsupporting framework 40A. The arcuate member 27A ends forwardly of mechanism 30 and its counterpart member 26A is folded into a side shoulder 26B terminating rearwardly of mechanism 30. When ball 22 first enters on ring 25A at the ball-pickup station it rests against folded shoulder 26B which bars the ball from moving rearwardly.

Under normal conditions, the weight of ball 22 causes the ball to stand still on the rotating cylindrical surface 12. In this manner the ball maintains a frictional, riding engagement with ring A and moves through a short portion d of the circular path 16. If the ball 22 is capable of maintaining its riding engagement, it will positively enter the space between arcuate track 24 and cylindrical surface 12. The mechanism pivots slightly to insure that the ball 22 rolls up the arcuate track 24. Since the arcuate track 24 is relatively stationary, the cylindrical surface 12 causes the rotation of the ball on the track members 26A and 27A. The ball 22 rolls up to a balldischarge station (not shown) from which the ball is caused to return to the player.

The preceding description relates to the general operation of modern ring-type elevators. The spinning problem, previously mentioned, will be understood when it is remembered that the bowling lanes are frequently dressed with a coat of lubricating compound, that the bowling balls are frequently handled without gloves, that lubricating oil from the rotating parts of the ball and pin elevator spot cover surface 12, that, in general, foreign substances may become deposited either on ball 22 or on cylindrical surface 12.

In that event, ball 22 looses its frictional engagement with surface 12 and, instead of remaining relatively still on ring 25A until it reaches arcuate track 24, the ball 22 starts spinning on surface 12 as soon as it enters on ring 25A. It will continue to spin at the pickup station 20 near the lowermost point 18. The spinning ball 22 is supported underneath by the rotating ring 25A and is supported laterally by shoulder 26B. An attendant would reach underneath the ball and manually push it up along the short arcuate trajectory d. This hand operation was not without a serious safety risk. The hand could get caught between any of the rotating parts of the elevator.

The improvement provided by this invention completely solves the spinning-ball, nonreturned-ball problem.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention there is provided a shaft 50 rotatably mounted on suitable bearings 52, 54. The bearings are supported on a bracket-supporting framework, generally designated as 56. Shaft 50 is positioned substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of ring 25A at a distance from the periphery of cylindrical surface 12 slightly greater than the diameter of the bowling ball 22. An arm 58 is radially and fixedly secured to one end of shaft 50 as by a coupling 60. The tip of arm 58 moves along a circular path 62 in a direction 64. Arm 58 is provided with a flexible sleeve 66 to prevent the ball 22 from becoming damaged.

While shaft 50 can be driven independently by a suitable electric motor, it is preferred to drive it with means coupled to an already rotating member such as pin elevator 11. Conveniently, therefore, a pulley 70 is fixedly mounted unto rotating shaft 72 supporting roller 32A. Another pulley 74 is fixedly secured to the other end of shaft 50. A drive belt 76 transmits the rotation of shaft 72 to shaft 50. In this manner arm 58 is continually driven in synchronism with ring 25A.

In operation of the preferred embodiment of this invention, after ball 22 enters the pickup station 20, the sleeve 66 of the rotating arm 58 engages the ball at point 67. Thereafter arm 58 causes the ball to roll up on the cylindrical surface 12 the portion d of the circular path 16. The position of the ball 22 at the end of this forced ride is shown by dotted lines 68. Thereafter mechanism 30 slightly pivots to positively cause the ball to roll up on track 24, and arm 58 completes its cycle along circular path 62.

A side advantage derived from the rotating arm 58, although not directly related to the ball elevator 10 (pertains to the dispersement of accumulated pins by arm 58 forcing them to move rearwardly of ring 25A to become elevated by the spaced-apart pin elevator 11 moving in a direction opposite to that of ring 25A, as shown in said patent.

Although the preferred embodiment of this invention was described in connection with a rotating, radiallymounted arm, it will be apparent that other rotating means can be provided to accomplish the function of pushing the ball along the portion d of the circular trajectory 16 so that the ball can be positively taken over by track 24.

What is claimed is:

1. In a bowling-ball, ring-type elevator including a rotatable, vertically-disposed ring rotating through an arcuate path, and a vertically disposed, arcuate track operatively associated with said ring for elevating a thrown ball from a bottom position to an elevated position on said track, the improvement comprising:

a ball-engaging member located inside said ring at a location to engage a ball disposed near said bottom position, and

driving means coupled to said member to continuously rotate said member inside said ring in such a manner as to urge said ball into positive contact with said track, thereby assisting in the transfer of said ball from said bottom position to said elevated position.

2. The improvement of claim 1 wherein:

said member is rotatable in the plane of said ring.

3. The improvement of claim 2 wherein:

said member is an extended arm.

4. The invention of claim 3 and further including a resilient material covering said arm to avoid damaging said ball.

5. The improvement of claim 3 and further including:

a shaft coupled to said arm.

6. The invention of claim 5 wherein said shaft is rotatably supported on bearing means.

7. The improvement of claim 1 wherein said driving means is coupled to the said rotating ring for rotation therewith.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,911,436 5/1933 Cone 27343 2,697,605 12/1954 Montooth et a1. 27349X 2,892,632 6/1959 Montooth 27349 3,183,001 5/1965 Giovanelli 27343 3,191,933 6/1965 Kalbflcisch 27343 3,456,946 7/1969 Buck 27349 ANTON O. OECH LE, Primary Examiner 

